Tao Te Ching Chapter 13

 

'Favor and disgrace cause one dismay;

What we value and what we fear are within our Self.'

 

What does this mean:

'Favor and disgrace cause one dismay?'

Those who receive a favor from above

Are dismayed when they receive it,

And dismayed when they lose it.

 

What does this mean:

'What we value and what we fear are within our Self?'

We have fears because we have a self.

When we do not regard that self as self,

What have we to fear?

 

Therefore he who values the world as his self

May then be entrusted with the government of the world;

And he who loves the world as his self -

The world may then be entrusted to his care.